Approximately 6 years ago Abu Dhabi built a Formula 1 race track and since 2009 has hosted an annual race as part of the Formula 1 circuit. The track was obviously built with the mindset of hosting the big Formula 1 race, but it seems to be used throughout the year hosting other types of races and to allow tourists to take a try at the track with different types of fast cars. They even open up the track once a week for cyclists and runners to train on. Carmen and I used this opportunity when training for the triathlon.
Carmen nor I are race fans but since the race is literally is in our backyard we figured we should give it a try. The race is on a Sunday but the overall race festivities spans over 3 days. One of the big things about the race is the concerts held in the evenings. Typically the race is able to draw big headline singers which helps justify the price of the race tickets….so we tell ourselves.
Anyway, we decided to purchase the two day ticket which included the qualifying races on Saturday and the actual race on Sunday (Friday is more for the real race junkies). Although most of the Formula 1 activity in the later afternoon, there are also V8 races (similar to stock cars) during the day with lots of activity outside the stadium. For Saturday races, Carmen was able to get a free ticket from her school so on Saturday morning, Trace, Rafi and myself went to check it out. Neither of the kids were too excited about the racing but there was enough activities (i.e. face painting, Wii games, Bungee trampoline, mini golf, and snackies) to keep them entertained.
The race itself was very interesting but amazingly loud. I ended up purchasing ear headsets for Carmen and I to minimize the sound and even with these the sound was loud. Without them would have been deafening. Fortunately there was a lot at stake in this race for the overall standings and without sounding harsh, there were a couple of crashes that made the finish quite exciting.
The three headline singers were Kylie Minogue, Nickelback and Eminem. Since we only had the two day pass we didn’t get tickets for Kylie. For being a conservative Muslim country I found it ironic that two of music headliners were singers known for their profanity and sexual connotations. The concerts were fab!
All in all a great one time experience….but it one of those been there done that. We probably won’t do it again unless we get some visitors that are keen to go…hint hint J
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| Nickelback concert |
View from our seats
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